U.S. Marines of the 3rd batallion, 11th regiment, fire on Iraqi positions with 155mm artillery near the town of Diwaniyah, south central Iraq, Tuesday, April 1, 2003. American soldiers on the road to Baghdad are engaged in heavy fighting with Iraqi forces loyal to Saddam Hussein, while the U.S.-led coalition launched missiles early Tuesday toward Baghdad and the holy Shiite Muslim city of Karbala in the southwest. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours) less

U.S. Marines of the 3rd batallion, 11th regiment, fire on Iraqi positions with 155mm artillery near the town of Diwaniyah, south central Iraq, Tuesday, April 1, 2003. American soldiers on the road to Baghdad ... more

Photo: LAURENT REBOURS

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Staff Sgt Jose Mariscal from 29 Palms, Ca, of the 3rd batallion, 11th marines regiment, looks at a photo of his daughter, Maricela, 2, he keeps lodged inside his helmet, as his artillery unit takes a break from pounding Iraqi positions near the town of Diwaniyah in south central Iraq, Tuesday, April 1, 2003. (AP Photo/Laurent Rebours) less

Staff Sgt Jose Mariscal from 29 Palms, Ca, of the 3rd batallion, 11th marines regiment, looks at a photo of his daughter, Maricela, 2, he keeps lodged inside his helmet, as his artillery unit takes a break from ... more

2003-04-02 04:00:00 PDT Diwaniya, Iraq -- The battalion is going into Diwaniya this morning. Machine guns oiled, ammunition belts folded into their boxes. M-16s are cleaned, and the tanks roar to life.

Diwaniya is a city of 443,000 in central Iraq, about 110 miles south of Baghdad. While it has little strategic value, it sits on the edge of the U.S. military's main supply route to Baghdad.

As day breaks, columns of armored vehicles line the road, backpacks hung outside to make room for the Marines within. Tanks are in the lead, turbine engines whining, turrets moving to and fro like sharks looking for food.

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There's been militia activity around here. Mortars have dropped on Marine units positioned along the supply route. An RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) fired at the Marines killed a medic.

So while the rest of the 1st Division rumbles north on Tuesday, the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines goes into Diwaniya to suppress the militia. By the end of the day, 92 Iraqis will be dead, eight will be wounded and 44 taken prisoner. There will be no Marine casualties.

This part of Iraq is flat as a tabletop, with green fields and occasional groves of trees, mostly palms. The soil is wet beneath a dry crust. Most buildings are dun colored, both the mud huts and the nicer apartment buildings in the city.

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The Marines lining the road into the city start moving. First contact comes about 10 minutes later. Iraqi irregulars and soldiers, dug into pits along the road, start firing.

A .50-caliber machine gun atop a tank rakes the Iraqis, killing several and sending more fleeing into the surrounding countryside.

"It was like turning a light on and watching the cockroaches scurrying," says Lt. Col. B.P. McCoy, the battalion commander.

The column continues past mud huts and small farms. Every so often, the sound of a heavy machine gun rips the air, interspersed with the short bursts from the military's new, fully automatic grenade launchers. Whack, whack, whack, whack, followed seconds later by impact -- thump, thump, thump, thump --

In this kind of battlefield, it's difficult to see enemy soldiers or enemy dead. They are shot or blown up from far away. But you know every time you see that cannon round explode in the distance, someone probably died.

TERRIFIED AND HUMILIATED

Inside the edge of the city, a portly man of maybe 50 is trying to surrender. He's waving a white flag and obviously terrified because he's between a tank and its target. A squad of U.S. Army soldiers and an interpreter motion for the man to take off most of his clothes and get on the ground.

He does and then crab-walks out of the line of fire. The soldiers search him and tie his hands, and the interpreter speaks with him.

The man said the local militia forced civilians to fight the Americans. He said they were told their families would be killed if they didn't comply. And they were told that once the Americans left, the Baath Party and militia would return for revenge.

It's hard to know what the truth is. The military has its version of how things work between the local militia and Baath Party officials, and the prisoners may be saying what they think their interrogators want to hear.

At any level, though, this prisoner and most of the others taken this day are terrified and humiliated by the circumstances they find themselves.

It's really not a fair fight. The Iraqis are poorly equipped and poorly trained. They come at the Americans with AK-47s and RPGs, maybe an occasional mortar. The Marines respond with tank fire and 155mm artillery rounds. They just blow the hell out of everything.

And the tanks keep firing. Other Marine units call for artillery support, which sounds like thunder when it hits in the distance. Some rounds hit buildings, and others are airbursts, firing a brilliant yellow spark and dark smoke seconds before the sound reaches your ears.

Much of the shooting descends on a palm grove across the street from the city landfill. There, the Marines take 17 prisoners, including a man they say is a major in the Republican Guard. They say you can tell a Republican Guard officer by the green uniform and red-tinted boots.

A dead man lies inside the grove, wearing that uniform. He looks to be about 40, with a slightly receding hairline and a Saddam Hussein mustache. There are no visible wounds on him, suggesting that he might have died from the concussion of an artillery shell. The ground is littered with artillery shrapnel.

His shirt is open and pants pulled down. The sergeant major says it's because Marines tried to revive him. But it was no use.

Near him is a pot of some kind of stew with red sauce, and flat bread. The attack apparently came as the Iraqis were preparing breakfast.

Nearby, a charred car sits next to a brand new Honda motorcycle, still upright on its kickstand, riddled with bullet holes.

On the road, tanks prowl, looking for any sign of a fight. Anyone carrying a gun is fair game.

'VIOLENT SUPREMACY'

The midday air is hot, and flies swarm around the men and equipment. They're coming, apparently, from the nearby landfill with its slightly sweet, slightly sour, sickening smell.

The Marines discover several caches of weapons scattered throughout the area, some of them in a small schoolhouse. It was the third time this battalion had found weapons stored at a school, which they say violates the rules of war since it could turn the building into a target.

The tank company commander radios that he's spotted a large group of people assembling nearby. McCoy tells him to shoot if they look hostile. The tank commander says he sees no weapons, so he waits. Later, he reports that the group contained women and children. The Marines go on their way, back to the highway to await further orders.

The battalion is about ready to wrap up and leave when Iraqi militiamen crawl up and fire off a half dozen RPG rounds. The rockets whoosh overhead, exploding about 20 yards behind a humvee.

The Marines respond with tank fire that sets fire to a bus and destroys several buildings. This is what McCoy means when he talks about establishing "violent supremacy" over the Iraqi militia forces.

The idea, McCoy says, is to kill any militia who want to fight and let the locals know that the Americans will support them against a regime that has oppressed them.

Earlier, McCoy's battalion had used the same approach in sweeps on the towns of Hajil, Afak and Al Budayr. There is no way to know, from this perspective, whether the campaign is successful. Driving back through Afak, after overcoming the militia in all three towns, people line the road to smile and wave and give a thumbs-up to the passing armored columns.

But you don't know what they are really thinking. In the distance, a group of kids play soccer while black-robed women watch.

As the last Marine unit leaves the last town on the way back to the supply route, the vehicle commander reports seeing tracer rounds fired from behind, inside the town. He tells McCoy it looks like a firefight going on back there.